Late Thursday afternoon, May 30, Donald Trump became the first former president in United States history to be found guilty on criminal charges.
A jury in Lower Manhattan, after only two days of deliberation, found Trump guilty on 34 criminal counts in District Attorney Alvin Bragg Jr.'s hush money/falsified business records case. And Justice Juan Merchan has set July 11 as the sentencing date.
Following the bombshell verdict, former federal prosecutor and ex-FBI General Counsel Andrew Weissmann offered some legal analysis on MSNBC and predicted that Merchan will give Trump jail time.
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Weissmann argued that the former president's many violations of Merchan's limited gag order will work against him when he is sentenced.
The former federal prosecutor told an MSNBC panel that include hosts Ari Melber, Joy Reid, Jen Psaki and Alex Wagner, "It is impossible for me to think that they will not factor in that the judge has found ten violations of the gag order beyond a reasonable doubt. And those violations are not small things. The last one was finding, beyond a reasonable doubt, a disrespect of a court order to protect jurors. It's hard to think of something more serious."
Melber asked Weissmann if he thought there would be a jail sentence, and he was confident that prosecutors will recommend one.
When Wagner asked Weissmann what type of appeal he expected from Trump's legal team, he responded, "Normally, to be out pending appeal, there has to be a serious legal factual issue presented…. In white collar cases, it tends to be that judges do allow somebody to stay out. That would deal with the sort of issue of how to deal with the campaign. But the first issue is: Does he even get jail time?"
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Weissmann continued, "So, you have gag order violations. You have things that show complete lack of remorse…. Could you think of a defendant with any more lack of remorse? If you think of the recidivism and the lack of remorse, there is such an array of things for the state to point to."
Another argument for jail time from prosecutors, Weissmann added, will be "he has to be treated like everyone else."
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Watch the full video below or at this link.
Ex-federal prosecutor explains why it's likely Merchan will sentence Trump to prison www.youtube.com
